QUEDLINBURG, CONVENT OF

Former Benedictine (936) and Lutheran convent (1539–40) in Saxony, Diocese of Halberstadt (patrons, SS. Servatius and Dionysius). It was founded as an imperial Benedictine convent for daughters of noble families by Matilda, widow of Emperor Henry I. Its first nuns came from Wendhausen. It was richly endowed with lands, privileges, and immunities; the abbess bore the title of imperial princess. It nurtured the Ottonian revival; probably widukind of corvey and later Bp. Thietmar of Merseburg studied there. By the 14th century, the convent was weakened financially and the town of Quedlinburg, asserting its independence of the abbess, was supposed by the bishop of Halberstadt, who was infringing on the convent's ecclesiastical immunity. But under Hedwig, 1477, its lordship over the town and its independence of the bishop were regained. It became a Lutheran convent under Anna II, and remained so until secularization, 1803. Subordinate convents were St. Mary (Münzenberg), St. Andrew at Walbeck, and Brehna; monasteries were St. Wigbert and Michaelstein.

Bibliography: Monumenta Germaniae Scriptores (Berlin 1826–) 3:18–90. k. janicke, Urkundenbuch der Stadt Quedlinburg, v.2:1–2 of Geschichtsquellen der Provinz Sachsen, 48 v. (Halle 1870–1923). h. lorenz and s. kleemann, Quedlinburgische Geschichte 2 v. (Quedlinburg 1922). a. brinkmann, Beschreibende Darstellung der älteren Bau-und Kunstdenkmüer des Kreises Stadt Quedlinburg, 2 pts. (Berlin 1922–23). h. leclercq, Dictionnaire d'archéologie chrétienneet de liturgie, ed. f. cabrol, h. leclercq and h. i. marrou, 15 v. (Paris 1907–53) 14.2:2017–19 r. joppen, Lexikon für Theologie und Kirche, ed. j. hofer and k. rahner, 10 v. (2d, new ed. Freiburg 1957–65) 8:931.

[d. andreini]